US President Trump has allegedly revealed highly classified information during an Oval Office meeting last week to the Russian foreign minister and a Russian ambassador.
The Washington Post reported on Monday that the President shared important information with the Russian visitors about a disclosed Isis threat.
Following the meeting, White House officials denied the news that Trump had shared classified information with the Russian officials.
Rex Tillerson, the secretary of state, said: “During President Trump’s meeting with Foreign Minister Lavrov, a broad range of subjects were discussed, among which were common efforts and threats regarding counter-terrorism,”
“During that exchange, the nature of specific threats were discussed, but they did not discuss sources, methods or military operations.”
Trump’s national security adviser, HR McMaster, was also quick to deny the information.
“At no time were any intelligence sources or methods discussed and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly,” he said in a statement.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, described the report by Washington Post as “very disturbing”.
“Revealing classified information at this level is extremely dangerous and puts at risk the lives of Americans and those who gather intelligence for our country. The President owes the intelligence community, the American people, and Congress a full explanation,” he said in a statement.
David Kochel, Jeb Bush’s strategist in the 2016 president campaign, tweeted: “John McCain probably revealed less to the KGB in 5+ years of torture at the Hanoi Hilton than Trump did in 5 minutes in the Oval.”
This is not the first time that Trump has made controversial headlines following meetings with foreign officials, most notably was his contentious introductory conversation with the Australian prime minister.
Trump is already under scrutiny, following his recent decision to fire FBI director James Comey who had been undertaking an investigation into potential ties between Trump and Moscow.
A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll has found that almost 80 percent of US citizens believe an independent investigator is required to examine the President’s alleged ties to Russia.